A Men's Retreat for Growth and Renewal: Our 27th Year [before 2009, we met at Buffalo Gap Camp in West Virginia]
We have confirmed reservations with the National Park Service for Camp 5 at Prince William Forest Park for the weekend Friday through Sunday, September 15-17, 2017 sponsored
by The Men's Council of Greater Washington

Brief History of the Men's Council of Washington, DC

The Men's Gathering has been sponsored by the Men's
Council of Washington since the first Gathering was held in 1990. The Gathering was held at Buffalo Gap Camp, Capon Bridge, West Virginia from 1990 through 2008. In 2009 the Gathering will be held at Ramblewood Camp, Darlington, Maryland.

Edward Honnold, a licensed clinical social worker with a practice in Washington,
started the Men's Council. After investigating a number of men's
organizations in the Washington area in the mid-1980's and attending
gatherings, such as the annual Minnesota Men's Conference, Ed organized
the first Day for Men in Washington in 1988. It featured both Robert
Bly and Michael
Meade as guest speakers.

Soon after this, Ed began to hold monthly meetings of the Men's Council at the Ethical
Society of Washington, located on upper 16th Street, NW. Ed assembled a planning team of five or six men who developed programs of interest to men, focused mainly on the ideas of mythopoetic
men's movement of which Robert
Bly was a well-known advocate.

Each month, the Council presented an experiential program dealing
with some issue of significance to men. Many men brought their
drums to the monthly meetings and played them before the meeting
began. Each meeting had an opening ceremony that helped men center
themselves that included a ritual in which men gave their names
and were welcomed. The experiential program followed, sometimes
including singing or ecstatic dancing, with time to socialize afterwards.
For those men who attended, it was a highlight of the month.

The
Men's Council had few rules: all men were welcome to attend; all men pledged that personal disclosures of other participants would not be repeated outside the meetings; there was freedom of speech, and peaceful resolution of differences. Men were encouraged to relax their judgments and take risks in self-disclosure.

By 1991, regular attendance at the meetings had grown to 150 men. The meetings were characterized by a very high level of energy. In 1992, Ed put together the second Day
for Men in the Washington area. Robert Bly was an important presenter. This event was a tremendous success and supplemented the treasury of the Men's Council so that it was in a good position for years to come to fund the annual start-up costs for the Men's Gathering.

By 1992, a number of the men who had been most closely involved
with the Men's Council formed the core of those who brought the New
Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA) to Washington. Over the next few years, many men who attended the Council participated in the NWTA as a next step in their personal growth. Many of these men decided not to continue attending Council meetings in favor of strong men's groups called Integration Groups that are offered as a follow-up to the NWTA.

By 1993 or 1994, there was a shift in the energy of the Council
toward a more structured approach to meetings. By this time, the
mythopoetic men's movement as a whole was no longer as popular
as it had been in years past. As a result, attendance gradually
eroded at the monthly Men's Council meetings so that by the late
1990's the meetings were no longer attracting enough men to make
it feasible to continue. With the exception of a few special meetings
held over the years, in part to test interest in a resumption of
monthly Council meetings, the annual Men's Gathering has become the sole activity of the Men's Council of Washington,
DC.